Why the internet will not transform real estate Episode #201

Hello! Welcome to Todd Miller TV. The debate rages. I did my blog, the Googlization of Real Estate and I’ve got a lot of responses and there’s this sort of debate about, you know, Real Estate agents and how we add value in our transactions and how technology is supposed to bypass all of that. So I just wanted to talk about that a little bit. This is sort of a fundamental thing and this is the main reason why the internet technology is not really going to transform the Real Estate the way people think. So, when you look at businesses that are online, your thinking of things like some merchandisers with places which are really good like Facebook and businesses like that work, the business’s digital contents so like Netflix, that’s perfect! You know it’s all done digitally, right? It digital content could replace a blockbuster or a borders books, okay? So the question is, is really is Real Estate an online business or an offline business. So, let’s look at some businesses that are offline that the internet probably isn’t gonna replace. How about car repair. I mean, you need to get your car fixed. You can go online and find a dealer maybe of find a mechanic or somebody kinda find out what their prices are, do some research, you can do that for the phonebook, the bottmline is, you’re gonna have to get in your car, drive it there and have a dude look at it and have to go under the hood and dig around. So it’s a perfect example of the Internet is never gonna replace that. So what about Real Estate? ‘Cause there’s this debate is/Well Real Estate is just all about the data, and the pictures, and the information, and man if I have information, well information is never the issue because there’s tons of information. If you go on Realtor.com , you have every piece of information you could probably have about in a house. So, why just, why is there a but? This is buy this house, click on it, you know you upload your bank account and the money gets sent to the person like on EEO through Paypal or something and you just show up at the house and move in. Well, it’s in/it’s easy. Because Real Estate is an offline business, it’s not an online business. What we have done in the industry and what Realtors have done, is we have taken the information and put it out there to promote us. Look, every website you go to that’s this house’s for sale, somewhere on it says click here to view it, click here to get to the agent. That’s what Zillow, and Trulia and all those website’s business model is. Even Realtor.com . They sell, advertising the Real Estate agents. That how they monetize the site. They get traffic, they sell it/the consumer information to the Real Estate agent. So what the internet is doing is being used as as advertising medium by Realtors to get consumers, and to get clients, and to get business, period. The online part of that is strictly marketing. It has nothing to do with the transactional side of the house. So the thought that we could take an offline business, and I think that’s a frustration. I think that’s what a lot of people are looking at and they’re saying “Why hasn’t Google taken/I just can’t wait for Google to take over Real Estate.” They’re not going to. Google is an online company. Real Estate, offline company. It’s not their business model. They’re not gonna go and say, “Hey look, let’s go take this offline business and try to convert it, make it online.” Never gonna happen. Real Estate will always be an offline business. The way we buy and sell Real Estate is probably not gonna fundamentally change. Trying to force it into online model is a failure. I think it’s a big mistake. I think what people that are making money and doing it the right way are doing the same thing that they’ve done in the past which is taking, getting consumers to look at their site and then selling that data to Real Estate agents or companies that promotes themselves online, getting consumers to watch and then people like that, and then converting those people to a client. I think that’s the way it’s done. That’s the difference between online business and offline business. Real Estate’s offline. It’s gonna stay that way, trying to force it into some other thing is not gonna happen. So, for those of you waiting for Google to take over and make your Real Estate experience, you know save you 6% or whatever your monetary is, it’s not ever gonna happen. You know, when you can get your car fixed by going on a website, and hitting a button and you drop/walk out of your car and your car magically starts, then we’ll talk about Real Estate being able to buy or sell a house that way. But it’s an on the ground business. It’s not something that can happen in a cloud. Anyway, that was my update for today and hope to see you on another video. Thanks!

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